The Kneeling Child

 The Anderson monument at Albany Rural Cemetery

When I unexpectedly came across the Anderson plot last spring, the badly weathered little statue atop the monument was already a familiar sight.  I had previously seen the figure atop a monument in Schenectady's Vale Cemetery.  The same figure also appeared as stock artwork in several 19th-century city directory advertisements for local stone cutters, including James Gazeley, William Manson, and Edward Remond (all of whom created monuments for Albany Rural).

 The Anderson lot viewed from one of the old ravine paths.

Variations on the statue also appeared in Facebook groups for cemetery enthusiasts;  there were examples in cemeteries such Brooklyn's vast Green-Wood, and Union Grove in Canal Winchester, Ohio, Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Forest Hill in Boston, Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, and Mount Auburn (the original "rural" cemetery).  Examples also appear in Ireland and England. Some of these figures were marble, one was white zinc. 

Vale Cemetery, Schenectady

The little figure was originally the work of Florentine sculptor Luigi Pampaloni (1791-1847).  Created around 1826, the figure was originally one of a plaster pair;  a sleeping girl and a kneeling boy beside her.  On a visit to Pampaloni's studio, Countess Anna Potocka commissioned a marble copy of the boy for the grave of her young daughter Julia in Krakow.

 1870 Albany city directory advertisement

The statue, which shows a child kneeling with one knee raised and one foot tucked behind, clasped hands, an upturned face, and long curls, became quite popular and copies some appeared in gardens and cemeteries.  Appealing to popular sentimental taste, plaster, alabaster, and porcelain examples could be found in parlors and drawing rooms.  Some examples include wings.  In some versions, the child kneels on a cushion, other omit the cushion.

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn

The figure is known by several names;  "The Praying Child," "Kneeling Samuel" or "Little Samuel," and "The Orphan."  Some claimed it was meant to represent the son of the late Emperor Napoleon.  It is also called "The Prayer of Pampaloni."

There is even a Flickr group of images of the various versions found around the world.

Charles Calverley

Anyone who has strolled or driven through Washington Park has seen the handsome Robert Burns monument with its bronze statue of the Scottish poet and four plaques depicting scenes from his works.   The Burns memorial, one of the Park's landmarks, was created by Albany sculptor Charles Calverley.

Calverley was born in Albany in 1833 and, at the age of thirteen, he apprenticed to local stonecutter John Dixon.  Dixon's workshop produced a number of monuments for the Albany Rural Cemetery, including that of the Strain family and local publisher Jesse Buel, as well as architectural elements and marble mantels.

In 1853, Calverley's work in Dixon's shop caught the attention of Erastus Dow Palmer.  After seeing a rose carved by the twenty-year old, the sculptor bought out the remainder of Caverley's apprenticeship and brought him to work in his own studio.

In 1868, Calverley opened his own studio in Manhattan at Fourth Avenue and 25th Street.  Working in both marble and bronze, he created numerous busts, bas-reliefs, and medallions, with the occasional full-length statue or cameo.  He did several commissions for monuments in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, including busts Horace Greeley and Elias Howe.  Another well-known Calverley piece in Green-Wood is Precious Georgie, a touching marble portrait of a four-year old boy who died of scarlet fever.

In Albany Rural Cemetery, he also created Meditation, the exquisite bronze statue on the monument of Doctor Jephta Bouleware (see photo below) and a beautiful portrait medallion of Ann Elizabeth Brown Wiles.

Calverley died in 1914.  His family plot on the South Ridge contains four examples of his work.  The main monument is topped by a bronze bust of the sculptor (a self-portrait) and the bas-relief on the front is a likeness of his wife, Susan Hand.  Behind the main monument, a second granite monument contains medallions of the sculptor's mother and his brother, John, who died of illness while serving in the Civil War.

 

Below:  Detail of the Boulware monument:

A Last Launitz

 This finely carved marble monument on the South Ridge (in a plot directly behind the Angel of The Sepulchre) was said to be one of the priciest pieces in a cemetery filled with expensive tombstones.

It was the work of Robert E. Launitz, a Russian-born sculptor well known for his funerary art.  Launitz, who was born in 1806 in what is now Latvia, emigrated to the United States and opened a New York studio (in partnership with John Frazee) in 1831.  Launitz created a number of notable monuments for Brooklyn's famed Green-Wood Cemetery, including the beautiful memorial for Do-hum-me, the daughter of a Native American chief from Kansas (she died in New York shortly after her wedding) and also worked on that cemetery's elaborate Charlotte Canda monument.  He also designed several public memorials, including those honoring James Fenimore Cooper and Casimir Pulaski.

Launitz created several monuments for the Albany Rural Cemetery, including the large sarcophagus of Archibald MacIntyre and the ivy-trimmed monument of MacIntyre's son-in-law, David Henderson.

This monument, erected in 1870, is believed to be one of Launitz's final commissions as he died later that same year.  Richly detailed, it features ornate cornices, heavy floral swags, delicate vines, inverted torches, and - in the front niche - the figure of Hope.  One of her hands rests on an anchor (a popular symbol of faith and steadfastness), the other points to Heaven.

The monument marks the grave of James Wilson.  A self-taught cartographer born in 1796 in New Hampshire, Wilson was inspired by a collection of European globes to open the first factory in the United States to manufacture geographic globes in 1813.  His early 13-inch wooden globes sold for $50 and, with his son, he would later open a second factory in Albany

Examples of his globes (and an advertisement for his company) can be found here:

American Treasures of The Library of Congress

Wilson died in 1869 and his widow commissioned this monument from Launitz.

The headstone of his daughter-in-law Abigail can be found in the Church Grounds